Hedge cutting question

[onthehoof]

Bloke phoned me a couple of weeks back to say the need to lay a new electricity cable in the verge and will need to side our hedge up as it was overhanging, OK says me without thinking it was a problem, so Friday was riding past and contractor had just finished siding up didn't cut top or anything, says bloke in house opposite had been out waving his fist at him and taking pictures saying he is going to report it as he knows farmers can't cut hedges till 1st September and they didn't do a nesting survey etc
Am I likely to be in trouble for allowing this even though I didn't officially give permission they just told me they were doing it

 

[49801]

Would person paying for the work be responsible here.
A word or explanation from that person to the upset party would get heat off your back.
Surely it's not a big stretch cut and not like your doing entire place

 

[Goweresque]

If there is any comeback from anyone (council/defra) I think I'd be tempted to have a case of amnesia and have no recollection of ever having been asked utility companies are not exactly renowned for acting honourably towards landowners, I'd have no qualms at all in dropping them in it. Lets be honest, if you'd said no, you can't cut anything until the end of August do you really think they'd have put their work schedule on hold for over a month?

 

[ARW]

The nosey bugger opposite needs to get a job and stop worrying about a hedge side.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Bloke phoned me a couple of weeks back to say the need to lay a new electricity cable in the verge and will need to side our hedge up as it was overhanging, OK says me without thinking it was a problem, so Friday was riding past and contractor had just finished siding up didn't cut top or anything, says bloke in house opposite had been out waving his fist at him and taking pictures saying he is going to report it as he knows farmers can't cut hedges till 1st September and they didn't do a nesting survey etc
Am I likely to be in trouble for allowing this even though I didn't officially give permission they just told me they were doing it

A friend of mine cuts hedges and verges for the council all summer long. He’s always having his photo taken and people stopping him to say that they are going to report it. He says nothing ever comes of it. I wouldn’t mind betting that the utility company have a nesting survey, even if they didn’t actually have a look at your hedge.

 

[ARW]

A friend of mine cuts hedges and verges for the council all summer long. He’s always having his photo taken and people stopping him to say that they are going to report it. He says nothing ever comes of it. I wouldn’t mind betting that the utility company have a nesting survey, even if they didn’t actually have a look at your hedge.

Same here, always getting my picture taken and angry looks and gestures.
we once cut a hedge that had grown into the road badly, as we cut it we got people beeping with a thumbs up, shouting thanks and flashing lights and smiling faces.

 

[Exfarmer]

Surely, you can cut roadside verges and hedges back, for safety reasons

 

[Slug Herder]

You will probably get RPA inspection. Unfortunately your informer neighbour will make a complaint before you can persuade otherwise, as they are frightened to make the complaint to your self.
The result is evidence passed to local authority who promise full action. They local authority then demand you are done by RPA then inspector looks for slightest hint of something wrong on any front.
You won't be able to appeal because they won't have time.

 

[kill]

Same here, always getting my picture taken and angry looks and gestures.
we once cut a hedge that had grown into the road badly, as we cut it we got people beeping with a thumbs up, shouting thanks and flashing lights and smiling faces.

Hedge trimming roads annually really is just common decency to your neighbours and other road users and allowing the best possible vision for other road users to drive safely (whether they are actually capable of that maybe another matter tho).

Very satisfying job bashing a seriously over grown hedge back tho @ARW

 

[Treecreeper]

Who owns the verge? There may be a wayleave payment pending!

 

[Ivorbiggun]

You can cut a hedge anytime for road safety, we cut a few metres each side of field gateways/tracks just before harvest for safety reasons. Never had a problem.

 

[onthehoof]

Who owns the verge? There may be a wayleave payment pending!

Highways
They complained when I coppice the original gappy hedge, when I replanted it they said I had planted on highways lands I moved it out about 6 inches, they moaned when it got too high and they couldn't see over it, get the picture

 

[Wombat]

Highways
They complained when I coppice the original gappy hedge, when I replanted it they said I had planted on highways lands I moved it out about 6 inches, they moaned when it got too high and they couldn't see over it, get the picture

For that kind of neighbour i would plant a load of leylandi on my side of the hedge

 

[Hesstondriver]

For that kind of neighbour i would plant a load of leylandi on my side of the hedge

Is that the same neighbour who just happened to order a load of Muck for his garden, verbally??

 

[Grass And Grain]

Highways
They complained when I coppice the original gappy hedge, when I replanted it they said I had planted on highways lands I moved it out about 6 inches, they moaned when it got too high and they couldn't see over it, get the picture

If your hedge is overhanging someone else's (highways) property, then they are allowed to cut it back. If THEY have cut it before 1st September then that is their problem.

Say that you said that they could cut it, but you presumed they would be cutting within the cutting dates and after 1st of September. If DEFRA make an issue of it, insist that they prosecute highways and the utility company.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Bloke phoned me a couple of weeks back to say the need to lay a new electricity cable in the verge and will need to side our hedge up as it was overhanging, OK says me without thinking it was a problem, so Friday was riding past and contractor had just finished siding up didn't cut top or anything, says bloke in house opposite had been out waving his fist at him and taking pictures saying he is going to report it as he knows farmers can't cut hedges till 1st September and they didn't do a nesting survey etc
Am I likely to be in trouble for allowing this even though I didn't officially give permission they just told me they were doing it

How the feck would he know whether a nesting survey was done or not.

 

[ARW]

How the feck would he know whether a nesting survey was done or not.

We do nesting surveys regularly if we are cutting back a hedge for a fence, I’m yet to show it to anyone or have to use it.

 

[shortshift]

We have to cut hedges along foot paths/roadsides or get charged by council to cut them

 

[ILovebaling]

Theirs a few want reporting around here in my opinion. Hedges cut all over here and I'm not just talking road sides and around fields going into rape. Seen loads of grass fields done completely and road sides done as much as possible (top and 1 stripe inside) on some wheat fields. Does boil my pee a little farms taking the money to not cut them then doing what they like.